So I had pre-planned this self guided touring adventure with a very highly rated Vespa rental company in Barcelona and as soon as I got down the gang plank and thru security I met my Italian friend Tony, who is cousin to the owner Vitorrio, and he introduced me to my powerful 50cc Vespa scooter.
Of course I had never driven a scooter before but I had driven a motorcycle ages ago and I had brought my drivers license, and credit card so I was confirmed to go. Apparently my foreign license doesn't really apply to scooters in Spain, so I was told to just claim tourist ignorance and the Policia should grant me a pardon?
While we scooted from the 30 mins from sea port to the Vesping shop, I was getting a private Barcelona tour from Tony and I soon recognized that these Spaniards drive a lot like the Italians and their main roundabouts are huge with unmarked lanes with no such thing as inside lane right of way. Just like Rome, Florence, Naples, and Palermo...there are scooters everywhere and they are driven mostly by young people, however I did periodically see some older folks that likely weren't too mobile without something motorized under their bottoms? lol
Two brothers started Vesping in Barcelona and they are very polite and considerate, and they use a custom Tom Tom GPS that mounts perfectly to the bike and you can do everything any GPS allows however included is 4 area programmed routes. The bummer part of this cool solo touring idea is it's illegal to use the voice navigation so I found myself often blowing by my plotted turn cause you gotta keep an eye on all the traffic and the street signs and traffic lights are not well placed. As well as the long street names are all Spanish and most intersections are like the bizarre 5 corners in Abbottsford but without road lines so cars and scooters are cutting each other off non stop. I only saw one scooter to car accident so its quite amazing how well its done and how quickly you adapt to the conditions!
I selected the Goudi City Tour and the route to Tibidabo National Park which is north on a mountain top with another amazing Catholic Church, large plaza and amusement rides with a spectacular panoramic view of Barcelona. I was hungry so I ordered from the only outdoor kiosk this popular Jamon Propio, and of course I found out that Jamon means pork. Should have been no surprise cause pork is king here...all the Tapas bars that are on every street corner like Tim Horton's back home, use pork and other varieties of hog parts in their creations...Hers's to good health and longevity?
The Tibidabo road to the top was only two lanes with no passing and very winding...my muscle machine was topped out a 50km/hr, which was the posted limit with many turns at 30 km however I still had a line of cars on my butt so the top couldn't come soon enough for me.
A sweaty moment on the descent over an hour later, I decided to hand support my camera in video how mode on my scooter while I was crusing to see if it could capture the scenery a bit. Well oops I had overcompensated on one particular sharp turn so as to not drop my camera and into the oncoming lane I was with a black Audi braking towards me while I am trying to get back to my lane on the sharp descent...that was it for the video idea and many thank you Lord prayers later, I was ready again for the streets of Barcelona.
While I was making each GPS stop...I would often park the Vespa and take some pics and try to learn from others what was going on and as it was Saturday and sunny and warm the locals and tourists were out in abundance and I would always listen for that certain sound of an english speaking voice.
I saw lots and learned plenty but of course this kinda touring doesn't provide the guided details of an organized excursion, but I needed a break from that. Drivng on a scooter through the back roads and stopping whenever to check something out on my own schedule was awesome and it gave me quite a good feel for the neighborhoods, unlike sitting in a tour bus and looking thru a window.
At one point the streets were blockaded with policia posted on my exsct route to the FBC football stadium and as I saw the throngs of walking people dressed in their red and blue striped jerseys, it turns out in over an hour Barcelona has an important league title match. So I followed all the other scooters to the stadium and a close by parking spot, which is just about anywhere for a scooter. This was superb timing as I could experience the energy from the thousands of hard core FCB football fans, and it was like nothing I expereinced. I shot a video of these young fans in a square singing and this red smoke was a spinning fireworks item and it let off quite the deafening bang every 5 to 10 mins amongst the shouting. Every entrance to the stadium was already jammed and tried for a ticket but the special events gal said it was impossible unless I found a scalper as it was sold out for this important title match, so that meant over 96K in the stadium!
As I was getting as close as I could to the stadium to take pics I went into the plaza with all kinds of shops and bars and souvenier items. The main team store was two levels and you could barely walk while people were buying multiple official FCB jerseys at up to $104.£ each, and of course number 10 for Messa was very popular.
Maybe one day the timing would be just a wee bit better and an opportunity to watch a match with that many fans would be very cool indeed...I was delighted however I experienced what I did, and it was very unexpected!
The Catalon architect Antoni Gaudi lived from 1852 to 1926, and left his fingerprint on many beautiful buildings in Barcelona. Most all of them have recently been declared National Historical Monuments and parks allowing the city to charge admission to everything and it is often 10 to 20£ where until recent it was at no charge...this is hopefully helping the sad Spanish economy. For me I got some great pics and had little time to visit more as my own tour was busy and the queues of people were very long.
I noticed after 4 or more hours on my Vespa, I was much more confident and even on the fast 8 lane streets like Diagonal all thru town I could keep up and scoot ahead of the bottlenecks easier. My rental was til closing of Vesping and I wanted to finsih my last stops until I mapped out how far I was away and had only 20 mins before they closed...Yikes!
The traffic on a beautiful Staurday night and the street life was just gearing up and as 8:00 neared it was panic time and it seems I hit every traffic light, and by the time I got into the area of the shop it was already 8:15. Worried I was as I couldnt leave the Vespa overnight or return it the next morning as we were disembarking early Sunday. I love it when I create this stressful moments over and over for myself, and especially when I am on a sabbatical?
Well the good news is the thoughtful owner waited for me and even refunded my delivery to the port charge that was 15£ and provided me with walking directions to a local restaurant out of the tourist area for some Barcelonian cusine and a combo walk/ metro map back to the cruise port.
Well an exciting and unique 9 hour self guided Vespa tour with me and Tom Tom, followed by what became a 5 hour walking marathon by the time I arrived back at my stateroom. I am becoming a bit more bullish now when it comes to asking people for walking directions to find my ship late at night, however even the locals including a restaurant owner who knows every ship that comes into port, sent me to the Barcelona City port instead!
Finally we discovered the Noordam, was docked in the commercial port as that is better suited for the bigger cruise ships so off I went again in the opposite direction. What I was told would require over an hour of time took me 30 minutes at a fast pace while enjoying a beautiful warm evening and not a soul to be seen when I got close to the docks. The trade off for the extra Vespa tour time facilitated my long evening of exercise and experiencing the night life in Barcelona, which even at midnight was still going strong with the cafés and bars, and people like me walking the streets...But likely not lost and wandering? lol
So as I compose this last bit of my Barcelona blog, I am flying on Pegasus Air to Istanbul. I am extremely sleepy with very few hours on Saturday and an early disembarking for the airport...airplane coffee isn't working too well.
Kinda sad to bid a cheerio to the ship mates and many friends over the past almost 2 weeks. However looking forward to a very different country and tour group to enjoy historical Turkey, including the very large and diverse Istanbul.
Hoping to have internet access in the evenings at the various hotels....hope to keep up with a new blog chapter that's gonna be all about Turkey, from my own day by day perspective. Stand by!
No comments:
Post a Comment